Cultural memory, underground and mainstream culture reminiscences in the Czech Republic

This case study is based on ethnomusicological fieldwork and interviews conducted with two contemporary performers in the Czech Republic, the underground singer Dasa Vokata and the popular actor Oldrich Kaiser, whose joint performances are based on reminiscences of Czech underground as well as mainstream culture during late Socialism. The paper explores cultural and communicative memory and musical activities regarded as mnemonic products and practices, aiming to demonstrate the process of transition of significant aspects of communicative memory to the domain of cultural memory and to identify the reason for their success in the contemporary commercial music scene.